jp's Space Marine (PS3)

[October 14, 2012 09:12:04 PM]

So I clunked my way through to the end...and I hit a brick wall. The last "mission" consists of fighting 3 successive waves of enemies. They each get harder than the last - but the last one was brutal. Not that the earlier ones were any easier, I really had to be concentrating and paying attention. I tried two nights in a row to no avail. And all of this before even getting to fight the big bad (chaos) meanie! Oh man. I was ready to give up but then...

...I realized I could reload the checkpoint entirely and change the difficulty level. YES! I had been playing on normal and bumping down to easy did the trick. Finally, finally, I was able to kill the baddies. Not that easily, I have to say. I swear the last two chaos marines took (each) at least 5 las-cannon shots in addition to all kinds of other attacks before dying. Those guys are SUPER tough.

The final battle was, fortunately, different. I guess I would describe it as a series of quick-time events but sightly different? (with mashing, not just quick-timing). It was worth it in the end and, true to form, things did not end well for the protagonist. I'm sure a lot of people were really surprised by the ending (he doesn't die, by the way), but it fits in quite nicely with the how "The Imperium" runs things...
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[September 29, 2012 09:28:32 PM]

I'm roughly 2/3 through (I think) and things have started to get a little boring. I actually feel bad as I write this because it's a weird sensation. I'm starting to feel that I'm retreading the same areas and, despite this being a forgeworld, it's terribly empty. Huge halls, vaulted ceilings, pillars, very grand. But so empty. The sad part is that I can tell the designers have tried to populate certain areas, or at least make it feel like actual human beings lived and worked there (before presumably begin evacuated). However, it just makes it seem worse. Or, is a scathing critique on life in an imperial world - there are families and loved ones, but no personal possessions. Everything is pretty sterile.

There was a twist in the story - one that I anticipated actually (due to the state of the inquisitor's armor). The twist has introduced new enemies (yay!) which I had hoped would mix things up a bit. But not really. I'm still a bit bored.

To overcome that, I've ended up playing a bit of campaign followed by a bit of online. The online co-op is actually quite neat. You basically try to survive successive waves or orks and baddies. I imagine that chaos marines will join the fray at some point, but I've never made it that far. The more you play, the more you level up and you unlock new "kits" (marines with different weapon loadouts). Not bad, actually.

At this point though, I'm just waiting to get to the end...
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[September 18, 2012 05:18:17 PM]

I was pretty excited about this game, mostly because I have a guilty pleasure for WH40K, but was disappointed that the game didn't review well. I picked it up anyways (once it had dropped in price) and then got it for free on PSN Plus. Having the game installed on the machine is that much more convenient that I started playing it the other night when I really should have been playing another game (from my "need to play" pile). Oh well. I figured I could get through the campaign rather quickly...

My first couple of sessions (I'm currently half-way through the campaign) were awkward and weird to say the least. I didn't really like the responsiveness of the controls (they felt slow and non-responsive) and I hadn't really understood some of the subtleties in the melee combat system. I also hadn't appreciated the health-recovery mechanic.

For a game that's over the top machismo, I had assumed that simple button mashing would work. Also, since the space marines are (on a one-to-one) basis that much tougher/better than an individual ork...well, I thought I'd be mowing down everything in sight. To a certain extent, that is what you do...except for those moments where it doesn't work and you end up dying a lot faster than you thought you would.

I realized that a lot of my initial failures had to do with:

(1) Not dodging / moving out of the way
(2) Not "aiming" my melee attacks correctly (so, I'd attack in the wrong direction)
(3) Not "healing" at the right moment.

Healing in the game is interesting because it requires that you kill an enemy. It's a two-step process: first you stun an enemy and then follow up with a "finishing move" - once the finisher completes, your health bar is restocked a certain amount (I guess depending on the enemy). The trick is, the finisher is an uninterruptable move (you have to watch the animation play through) AND, you're vulnerable to damage while it happens. When I first started playing I hadn't realized this and lost quite a few times - I'd charge into a pack of orks, stun one, finish him, and then die as the others mobbed me while I angrily mashed buttons trying to attack back. It was pretty frustrating. But then I changed my tactics, attack the mob, wait until there's only one or two left, finish THOSE and get the healing effect.

The incentives are kind of strange and perverse here, because in some sense you're being penalized for executing showier moves. You don't want to do them at any time because you're vulnerable...but on the other hand you DO want to do them because it's the only way to heal AND it makes sense with the games' setting (Adeptus Astartes space marines are real badasses that "normal" humans view as demi-gods of amazing power and abilities). Overall though, I appreciate the system and how it offers up an interesting risk/reward situation that discourages incredibly defensive playing. This, again, is in-line with the games' setting - the space marines relish getting into combat!
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